POLITICS AUGUST 26, 2008
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During the Democratic primary season, Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina was the man to talk to about identity politics. As the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns hurled suggestive and sometimes ugly statements at each other, Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, spoke personally with the candidates and appeared on television numerous times to insist that cooler heads prevail, lest the Democrats lose their chance to take the White House. Now, with the primary season officially (almost) over, Clyburn discusses the improbability of Barack Obama’s candidacy, the state of his friendship with Bill Clinton, and the damage the primaries did to the Democratic Party.
You have described dreaming of this moment--a black man receiving a presidential nomination--while sitting in a South Carolina jail cell after being arrested during a civil rights demonstration. How do you feel now that it’s happening?
I’ve always expected this day to come; I just never expected to live to see it, just as I didn’t get to Congress in the lifetimes of my mother and father. But all of a sudden [a black nominee] is here, it is upon me, and hopefully I’ll continue to be around and live to see a black president. [chuckles]
During the primary, you suggested that Bill and Hillary’s relationship with the black Democratic base had been irreparably damaged. Do you still believe that?
I simply said that I thought that things were being said and done that could very well make the nomination of our party not worth having. I was around when the Willy Horton ads literally annihilated our candidate for president. That [sort of attack] didn’t start out with Republicans; that started out in the Democratic primaries. Right now, we see the McCain campaign doing things that seem to be taken out of the Democratic primary. We see a tightening in this race. And we have nobody and nothing to blame except things that happened in the primary.
Bill Clinton referred to you on ABC News recently as a “former friend.” Do you consider your friendship over?
I certainly don’t feel that way. I think Bill Clinton was an excellent president and is an outstanding Democrat. I suspect that when you have differences, as many of us have had, it’s sometimes tough. When I ran for Congress, I ran against four other people. It was a tough campaign. Some people reacted in certain ways, but we got over it in later years. I understand these things.
You are speaking at the convention on the same night as Bill Clinton. What does he need to say in his speech--and what does the Clinton camp need to do in the coming months--to re-ingratiate himself with the black community?
I’m not going to tell anyone what to say in their speeches. ... I would hope that everybody talks on terms that help unify this party.
You’ve discussed the difficulties that now face Obama’s candidacy, some of them made apparent during the primaries. What does the Democratic Party need to do now to combat them?
We’ll have to run a campaign based on what folks in this country seem to want to see happen. People want to see us solve the energy crisis as it exists, the housing crisis as it exists, the health care crisis as it exists. They want to see us create a better economy and a way of life for them and their children. Whether we can do that will determine if we can be in the mainstream, or remain on the margins.
Should Obama succeed in this and become president, what impact do you think that would have on how Americans, particularly younger generations, view our history of racial divisions?
I think if Barack Obama becomes president it will have the most positive impact of any single event in my lifetime--on young African-American males especially. I used to teach school. I used to teach students that if you study hard and play by the rules, you can be anything. At the time I was saying it, I didn’t really believe it. Young African-American males are filling up jails, dropping out of schools. Those things I think will be taken care of with this election.
Seyward Darby is a reporter-researcher for The New Republic.
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By Seyward Darby
11 comments
This man was teaching things he didn't actually believe, eh! Well then, maybe BO is saying things he actually doesn't mean, too. Blacks have had it both ways for too long. Enough. Get a life and work for what you want and don't expect it to be given to you. BO really hasn't worked for the presidency, he wants it to be given to him. What has he really accomplished.
- Mmarquez
August 27, 2008 at 11:13am
“Senator Clinton could not have been better and made the case for change.” --The “case for change” doesn’t have to be “made” (Just look at the opinion polls). The “case for” Democrats over Republicans doesn’t have to be made to delegates to the Democratic Party National Convention (or shouldn’t have to be)! The “case for” Obama DOES have to be made. None of the speakers, thus for, have even ATTEMPTED to make it. Where are the specifics and particulars? The majority of the country is waiting! --On To The Floor Vote!
- p.
August 27, 2008 at 1:54pm
Oh sure. McCain never would have figured out that Obama barely had any experience unless it had come out in the primaries. The reason they're the same criticisms of Obama is because they're obvious to all but his devotees.
- bigm
August 27, 2008 at 2:08pm
“you can be anything.” --Hillary Clinton’s parting line in June (coupled to ‘don’t look back, just look forward’). It’s pure fantasy for the majority of American blacks, as it is for the majority of American women, the majority ALL Americans, and the majority of all of the peoples in the world. This is the Opiate of the ‘Liberation’ Movements and the motive force of present-day ‘Human Development' (formerly known as Population Control) (i.e. post-1965 Eugenics), employed to teach us to serve something 'greater than ourselves' (which needs to be defined!) --“At the time I was saying it, I didn't really believe it. . . I think will be taken care of with this election.” This is an interesting statement. What does he mean by “will be taken care of?” What does this man’s carefully-phrased statements actually MEAN at all? Since he’s one of the TINY FEW of Americans who are better off than 38 years ago, and since he admits to making clear statements that hedoesn’t believe, then one might like to know specifically what he means when he makes these ambiguously-phrased statements, no?
- p.
August 27, 2008 at 2:20pm
“McCain campaign doing things that seem to be taken out of the Democratic primary” --As predicted commonly in the press, March-April (using the same example of Gore starting the Horton ads). There’s no “see to be” about it. McCain has been running Hillary’s main campaign points since June. Virtual plagiarism for at least 50 percent of Hillary's main points (Which makes Bill’s ‘hypothetical’ question yesterday interesting, no?).
- p.
August 27, 2008 at 2:23pm
“I'm not going to tell anyone what to say in their speeches. ... I would hope that everybody talks on terms that help unify this party.” --The stock (“boilerplate”) answer. No problem about not dictating others' speeches for them, but how about some suggestions? Wright, Obama, Clyburn, . . . See: SOME blacks can be useful puppets, guaranteed to be financially well taken care of, too. The neo-Uncle Toms?
- p.
August 27, 2008 at 2:29pm
On the neo-suffragette Boomer-Babe Blue Hairs, the traumatized (‘wish-I’d-grown-up-in-a Loving, Committed, Relationship, like-my-grandparents’) millennial’s, the reformed “hispanics,” who yellow-pant suit wearing Hillary ‘reminds of their mothers’ (<=this is not mine, but from another ‘intellectual prostitute,’ A.K.A. “journalist,” of recent days), and ‘Opiate of the Movements’ followers of all kinds --On To the Floor Vote! (www.hillaryclinton.com).
- p.
August 27, 2008 at 2:39pm
Turn off guest comments. You keep saying how hard it is, when the truth is that any competent webmaster could do it in hours if not minutes. Until you do, you're going to get racist BS like Comment #1 filling up the talkback pages and making TNR look like it's run by incompetents. If you're calling McCain out for his inability to use email, you need to clean up your own mess.
- IT Guy
August 27, 2008 at 2:44pm
Mr. Clyburn is right. Things haven't changed much, have they? Democrats are losers and will always be losers...at least in presidential politics. You would think the Republicans did not compete in their primaries. They did, but they kept their criticisms within their party. And how many Republicans have you heard complaining that they are not going to vote for McCain because of what he said or may have said about the candidate they supported in the primaries? Zero. If the Democract do lose this election, I think we will have our answer to whether they can actually ever the trusted with the keys to the White House.
- Nana
August 27, 2008 at 3:27pm
Holy crap mmarquez you are a freakin' idiot. My mom once told me about Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Obviously she was lying. She's a woman. Hilary Clinton is a woman. Therefore, Hilary must be lying, too!
- No, seriously
August 27, 2008 at 4:17pm
Clyburn is a race baiting piece of crap, and I hope he pays for what he's done.
- Miss Malevolent
August 28, 2008 at 1:20am